Since Wizards of the Coast had the sheer, brazen audacity to wait until the day after I stream to open up the Throne of Eldraine expansion on Arena, I had to find something else to fill the void. To that end, I decided it would be a good idea to run through another roguelike game that I’ve had a ton of fun with in my spare time: Dead Cells.
I can’t help but be amused by the fact that the only run I’ve ever recorded of Dead Cells just happened to be the one where I lucked into an awesome build that could carry me through to even the final boss. Then again, I haven’t been keeping up with the patch notes. For all I know, the game is just easier than it once was.
Speaking of, it’s also fun just to see how the game has changed over time, since I’ve been away from it for so long. Motion Twin has done a great job with post-release support for the game, and every time I come back it’s just better than it was before.
For example, in previous builds, the “speedrun” door, which gives the player bonus cells and gold if they can reach it before it closes, was located early on in the following area, after they turned in all of their cells. That meant that it was possible to get the bonus and then die before the option to cash in presented itself. By moving it to the hub world players find themselves between stages, the developers guarantee that if we’re not saving up our cells to pump up our drops after a boss, we at least have a chance to cash in on our reward immediately.
In addition, note that the route my run went through is only one path that can be taken through the game. There are alternate paths, bosses, and item drops, which make each run almost completely unique. A famous quite from Sid Meyer reads: “Games are a series of interesting choices”. And this game excels at forcing players to make choices that seem small, but in the aggregate allow them to define their playstyle and direction they wish to take their character.
Should I even play another run of Dead Cells on camera, I hope I better show off that aspect.
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